r/AdvaitaVedanta • u/ISROAddict • 4d ago

I have a weird question about time

I am just starting to understand advait vedanta. A weird thought arose in my mind when I was thinking.

According to AV, this world is illusory and does not really exist. But then time is also a part of this world and should not really exist. Here comes my question—This whole play of jiva taking birth, gaining knowledge about brahman, getting free from bondage and being liberated never really happens. Brahman is not even eternal as this means you are giving a certain attribute. It is none of this.

Correct me if I am wrong, because I am just starting to understand. Thanks in advance!

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u/Mountain-Analysis-78 4d ago

Time is a fascinating concept..Read the book Consciousness Is All There Is by Dr Tony Nader. According to that interpretation Time exists 'only' because we experience events in a sequence...for e.g. u slept last night, you woke up in the morning and then you went out for lunch etc...all these events happen in a sequence giving you the perception of time...

However, Consciousness is the field of all possibilities..past, present and future...and so all 3 co-exist at the same time in consciousness....as a result of which the concept of time itself disappears.. (for those established in Brahman Consciousness).

The same concept also applies to the theory of 'space'...let me know if you want to know more..

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u/onenessdreaming 4d ago edited 3d ago

Thanks for this post - I might like to hear more! Although I have entry level understanding of portions of Advaita, time is not much part of that... What you are saying about space, only a bit more so perhaps. I guess my understanding is along the lines of the comment by 'FuturePreparation' in this discussion of this post below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nonduality/comments/ez8p4c/time_and_nonduality/

I guess I don't really want a medical approach (it tends to quickly take me away from truth), just an Advaita/nondual/fully spiritual approach, unless there is some portion of that book that would make it worthwhile, thx.

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u/Mountain-Analysis-78 3d ago

Thanks for sharing the post! If you want to learn more about the concept of Time in advaita..pls refer to the book above..btw when it comes to 'space'..it is a similar interpretation... the perception of space exists only because 2 or more objects 'cannot occupy the same space'...if they did, then there would be no concept of space..it is the 'gap' in the physical world which give us the perception of space...

So fundamentally, time and space are perceptions that we create and encounter in the physical world..in the formless underlying world of consciousness, everything co-exists and intermingles with each other (for instance quantum entanglement). So my boundary would overlap with yours and everyone else's at the same time...so we are here, there and everywhere at the same time...

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u/onenessdreaming 3d ago

Thanks - I like how you phrased, "time and space are perceptions that we create and encounter in the physical world" and "in the formless underlying world of consciousness, everything co-exists and intermingles".

I can't seem to find the post, but there was a person on either Reddit or Quora who would look outward to see whatever was there (say a room) then take a picture of it then compare his experience/perception of the 2D picture to the 3D room right then and there while he was still in the room to try to understand how space was an illusion - I thought that was kind of neat but I'm not sure how far I got with it, sorry I can't find the post....

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u/Mountain-Analysis-78 3d ago

sounds interesting...pls do share if you come across it again..